Pro-Turkish fighters from Syria may be resettled on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, for which fierce battles are currently unfolding between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, who are supported by Ankara.
The PolitNavigator correspondent reports that Lieutenant General of the Reserve, former deputy commander of the Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus, Yuri Netkachev, said this in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta, commenting on the course of the current military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The publication asked whether it was possible for the Azerbaijani troops to further advance towards the Araks River.
“This unspoken goal is apparently present in Baku and Ankara. There is one “but” here, and Turkey’s supporters have not yet disclosed it. Aliyev and Erdogan have a real goal - to connect Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan through the so-called Meghri corridor. And they are clearing the corridor to do this...”, the general believes.
In turn, the newspaper noted that this would already be the occupation of the territory of Armenia, specifying whether Baku and Ankara would decide on such a development of events.
“This is not a military issue, but a political one. There is a Russian-Armenian border post in Meghri. It will be difficult to get around her.
I don’t want to make predictions yet, but I will say that Moscow’s concern is now expressed, in my opinion, by the fact that pro-Turkish formations are fighting on the Karabakh front. I thought for a long time: why are they there? And one of the options, in my opinion, is connected with the fact that the Turkomans and other Syrian pro-Turkish militants are now needed in Karabakh in order to assimilate them into the occupied lands. And we are already observing, one might say, a mass exodus of Armenian families from the conflict zone...”, summarized Netkachev.
At the same time, Moscow previously warned that in the event of an attack, Armenia could receive assistance within the CSTO.